


Persephone

by unknowntrombone



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Trans Female Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 14:11:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,076
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6287743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowntrombone/pseuds/unknowntrombone
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She had always dealt in the magic of names, but the extent of their power had always eluded her. That is, until she finally found her own.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Persephone

**Author's Note:**

> I would not be writing this fic if it weren't for the many trans and non-binary people in the fandom who have written meta and speculation about Rumple as a trans or non-binary character since Season 1. I thank them deeply for their insight. I want to thank my friend John (jxhniarty) in particular for being my beta. 
> 
> The Archive Warning is for descriptions of violence and torture due to the Underworld setting, not for transmisogynistic violence. 
> 
> In this chapter, Hades isn't intentionally misgendering Rumple. She isn't out yet at this point.

"The pomegranate, is the most delicious fruit of the mortal realm," the Lord of the Underworld quipped. "Dark One, do you know why I love it so?" 

"I care not," Rumple replied, her impatience growing by the minute. "I did not come here for idle chit-chat." 

"Then why exactly are you here? Remind me," Hades said with a shit-eating grin. 

Rumple could feel every tendril of her fury and impatience. She would not be surprised if her cheeks were reddening underneath that golden skin. "I...am...here...for...my...son," she hissed. "I must know beyond any doubt if his time has come to pass." 

"You care for your son very much. Isn't that right?"

"Yes." 

"A father’s love! How quaint.” 

Had he been a mortal man, those would have been his last words. Rumple would have thrown enough magic and darkness into his fragile body to pulverize every cell. Instead, the Lord of the Underworld, as immortal as the Dark One standing before him, dipped one of his meaty hands into the crimson fruit he was holding in his left hand, scooped out a few seeds, and crushed them between his thumb and index finger. The juices ran down his palm, staining his hand blood-red. He then slowly stuck each of his fingers, one by one, into his mouth, sucking them dry, then removing them with a "pop!" 

Rumple, meanwhile, remained too enraged to speak. 

"Now where were we," Hades continued. "Ah yes! The pomegranate! I ask again, why do you think I love it so?" 

"And I say again! I care not!" Rumple snarled. 

Hades leaned closer to her. "But you will answer," he said. "We both know that you will. It is for the same reason that I mocked your paternal concern and lived to tell the tale. With me, all your magic and dark power is useless." He leaned back in his throne and spread his legs apart. For men, Rumple knew, this was a churlish display of dominance. "This is my house and you play by my rules. Now, I ask again. Why do I love the pomegranate so?"

In that moment, there was nothing Rumple wanted to do less than answer Hades' question. She wanted to return from whence she came, to the world of the living. She didn't want to think any longer about the arrogant malevolent spirit sitting before her. How he had made a mockery of her grief. How he called her 'Father.' Why did that seem so wrong? To Bae, it was what she was. Yet it seemed...ill-suited...like a sheepskin glove worn on the wrong hand. It always had. 

"You love your fruit because you like the way it tastes and, being a glutton as well as a boor, you can't help but indulge in sweet pleasures," Rumple answered. "Are you satisfied?" 

"Ah ah ah! That is not why."

"So are you going to make me sit here and guess until I get it right?" Rumple snapped. 

"No, that would be unbelievably dull. Instead, would you like to hear why I love this one fruit above all the others?"

"Sounds delightful," Rumple said with sarcasm. 

"Once upon a time, there was once a woman who was walking on a trail not far from her village. She saw, lying just off the path, a half-open pomegranate. Feeling a bit peckish, she grabbed it and ate a few seeds. Liking the taste, she took a few more off of the tree and went back home. ‘Behold!’ She said. ‘I have found a new delicious fruit!’ The other villagers all laughed. ‘That is not a fruit!’ A man said. ‘Why not?’ The woman asked. ‘You cannot eat its flesh!’ The man said. ‘You eat the seeds.’ The woman said back. Then the man turned back to the other villagers and asked: ‘What sort of fruit is there where you eat the seeds and throw away the flesh? That does not exist!’ ‘Then what is it?’ the woman asked. ‘Well that is very simple! It is a nut! Unlike with a fruit, you throw away the shell and eat the seed. That makes it a nut, not a fruit! But if you feel so strongly that it is a fruit, we will have everyone try it and put it to a vote!’ Then the woman split the pomegranate in half and had everyone try a piece. It tasted nothing like any nut they ever had, but it was sweet and juicy like a fruit. Now what was the moral of that story?”

“A man will never take a woman at her word,” Rumple guessed. 

“No, it’s that a pomegranate is not a fruit because of what’s on the outside. On the outside it could very well be a nut. It has a hard inedible shell like one. Yet the outside doesn’t matter. A pomegranate is a fruit because of what is on the inside.”

“What an irrelevant little fable that turned out to be,” Rumple groused. “Now, will you tell me about my son so I can go back home?”

“Do you still agree to the terms of our original deal.”

“Yes, yes I will spend every winter with in this dreadful place. I will get to see Bae.”

“Assuming that your Baelfire is here.” 

At the time, the idea that he would not be seemed out of the question to her. The Land Without Magic was almost certainly a cruel, uncaring world. The kind that young orphan boys did not survive on their own. “He is here.” 

“So you agree?” 

“Yes.”

Hades extended his hand toward her. “Eat exactly seven pomegranate seeds, and we will have our deal.” 

Rumple counted out seven seeds, then threw them into her mouth. It was the best pomegranate she had ever tasted. 

“And here is your answer,” Hades said. “Your son……….drumroll please………is NOOOOT HEREEEEEEEEEE! He is still alive and kicking! I do not know for how long now but he does not reside in this realm. Not…yet.”

That same shit-eating grin spread once again across his face. Rumple sighed inwardly. She loathed the idea of having to spend another second with him, let alone every season. But it would be worth it. If she could not find her son in the realm of the living, this meant, at the very least, they would be reunited here, in the land of the dead. That would make it all worthwhile.


End file.
